4273. Robert Southey to Nicholas Lightfoot, 1 November 1824

 

Address: [in a different hand] London Sixth Novr./ Revd. Nicholas Lightfoot/ Crediton/ Devon/ Free/ JRickman
Postmark: FREE/ 6 NO 6/ 1824/ +
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. d. 110. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 1 Nov. 1824

My dear Lightfoot

It is I trust unnecessary for me to say, – (supposing I could say it,) – how much we are obliged to you & Mrs L.

(1)

Nicholas Lightfoot had married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.

for all your kindness to Edith May. She will bring away with her many pleasant recollections of Devonshire. In two days more she will have been absent a whole year from home; – I begin to grow a little impatient for her return, & to feel that life is not long enough to afford such long terms of absence. She has yet some visits to make in & near London which will detain her till after Christmas; – & as soon as the depth of winter is past, – that is early in February, I hope to have her & her sister Bertha, safely packed up to be delivered at Keswick.

Next summer according to your promise, I shall expect John, & if you will contrive to join him at Oxford & come with him, x I xxxxx the shall have the more pleasure in looking on to the visit. The older we grow the deeper root our early friendships takes, & the more fruit they bring forth; – & this is one benefit that age – which takes away so much, brings with it.

You must not believe the newspapers which advertise that my second volume of the Peninsular War is to be published this month.

(2)

‘In November will be published, The Second Volume of the History of the Late War in Spain and Portugal. By Robert Southey. Printing for John Murray, Albemarle-street’, Morning Post, 26 October 1824. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) did not appear until 1827.

It will not be ready before the spring. A quarter only of the vol. is printed & not another quarter ready for the printer.

(3)

Thomas Davison (1766–1831).

I do not hurry myself, & shall not allow myself to be hurried: – the shifts of a jaded author would be as perceptible as the pace of a jaded horse. The difficulty of any such composition lies first in the arrangement, & then in the manner of connecting the parts, & passing easily & naturally from one part of the subject to another. If I cannot arrange the order of narration to my satisfaction, or please myself with the manner of transition, I lay the work aside. It is no use to labour at that, which must be done with ease if it be done well. Tomorrow I take it up with a mind refreshed & in another mood, – & the ink which was yesterday clogged in the pen, flows freely.

You remember what Dr Johnson said of the posthumous publication of Bolingbrokes irreligious writings, by Mallet, – that Bolingbroke had loaded a blunderbuss, & being afraid to discharge it himself, had left a rascally Scotchman half a crown to pull the trigger.

(4)

Speaking of David Mallet’s (c. 1705–1765; DNB) edition of the Works (1754) of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751; DNB), Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB) declared of Bolingbroke that ‘he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward because he had not the resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!’ (James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), Life of Samuel Johnson, 3rd edn (London, 1799), p. 312).

Capt. Medwin is Lord Byrons blunderbuss.

(5)

Thomas Medwin (1788–1869; DNB), Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822 (1824).

I have seen no more of the book than certain extracts in the newspapers.

(6)

New Times, 25–27 October 1824, where Stoddart used the newspaper he edited to comment extensively on Byron and Medwin’s Conversations. In the final article of 27 October 1824, Stoddart paid particular attention to attacking Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), which had parodied Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821), and defending Southey against Byron’s ‘vindictive hatred’. The Morning Herald had published extracts of Medwin’s book, for example, on 25 October 1824.

Among those which relate to myself is an account of the manner in which his Lordship was affected upon seeing my attack upon the Satanic school in the preface to the Vision of Judgement.

(7)

A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), ‘Preface’, pp. xvii–xxii, where Southey denounced ‘the Satanic School’ of modern poetry, without naming any one poet. However, this was clearly a riposte to Byron’s Don Juan (1819), whose suppressed ‘Dedication’, mocking Southey, had circulated widely. Southey was mistaken in thinking that Medwin reported Byron’s extreme anger at seeing A Vision of Judgement (1821); instead, Medwin stated Byron was infuriated by seeing a copy of Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, which appeared in the Courier on 11 January 1822 (Medwin, Jour…

I am vindictive enough to wish he could he could have known in how very different a manner the whole series of his attacks, before & after that time acted upon me. He would have very well understood the reason of the difference – What I said of him was true to the very letter, manly in its expression & righteous in its purport. What he said of me was as false as it was malignant, as cowardly as it was calumnious, & as blackguard as it was base.

I have made considerable progress in my Colloquies,

(8)

Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).

& shall send them to press as soon as I learn from Westall that the engravers are in any forwardness. You will be very much pleased with these prints, which are to be in the best manner of line engraving.

(9)

Westall produced six prints: ‘Druidical Stones near Keswick’; ‘Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite-water and Skiddaw, from Walla Crag’; ‘Derwentwater from Strandshagg’; ‘Crosthwaite Church and Skiddaw’; ‘Greta Hall, Derwentwater and Newlands’; and ‘Tarn of Blencathra’. Lightfoot had seen all but the last on his visit in 1822.

The scenes are all in this neighborhood, – & I believe all, with the exception of the Tarn on Saddleback, known to you. That Tarn we shall visit when you come next. My views of the present state of society, & my speculations concerning its progress, may draw upon me, as usual, a good share of abuse. They may provoke some persons, & perhaps alarm others. But to those who are capable of serious consideration they will present sufficient matter for it, – & there are some, – (not a few – I should hope) who will feel their opinions rectified & their hearts strengthened by them.

The Laking season is now fairly closed. We have not seen many strangers this year, & now we shall be wholly to ourselves thro the winter. The winter is of course my season of activity. I take an hour upon the sofa, between dinner & tea, reading there for about a quarter of that time, & then indulging in a comfortable – & what I believe to be a very wholesome nap. At six (& we are punctual as the clock) the tea bell wakes me. Two cups of green tea make me alive & active; – up I go to my desk, the candle fixes me to it, & I have then three hours of steady employments, – from one to two of which are pretty frequently occupied in letter writing. But these hours are the most productive part of the day.

Remember me most kindly to your fireside – all here join in remembrances. Say to John that I hold him engaged for next summer – make up your mind to come with him, – & believe me my dear Lightfoot

Yrs affectionately
RSouthey.

Notes

1. Nicholas Lightfoot had married Bridget Prideaux (1768–1856) on 13 July 1801.[back]
2. ‘In November will be published, The Second Volume of the History of the Late War in Spain and Portugal. By Robert Southey. Printing for John Murray, Albemarle-street’, Morning Post, 26 October 1824. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) did not appear until 1827.[back]
3. Thomas Davison (1766–1831).[back]
4. Speaking of David Mallet’s (c. 1705–1765; DNB) edition of the Works (1754) of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751; DNB), Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; DNB) declared of Bolingbroke that ‘he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward because he had not the resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!’ (James Boswell (1740–1795; DNB), Life of Samuel Johnson, 3rd edn (London, 1799), p. 312).[back]
5. Thomas Medwin (1788–1869; DNB), Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822 (1824).[back]
6. New Times, 25–27 October 1824, where Stoddart used the newspaper he edited to comment extensively on Byron and Medwin’s Conversations. In the final article of 27 October 1824, Stoddart paid particular attention to attacking Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), which had parodied Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821), and defending Southey against Byron’s ‘vindictive hatred’. The Morning Herald had published extracts of Medwin’s book, for example, on 25 October 1824.[back]
7. A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), ‘Preface’, pp. xvii–xxii, where Southey denounced ‘the Satanic School’ of modern poetry, without naming any one poet. However, this was clearly a riposte to Byron’s Don Juan (1819), whose suppressed ‘Dedication’, mocking Southey, had circulated widely. Southey was mistaken in thinking that Medwin reported Byron’s extreme anger at seeing A Vision of Judgement (1821); instead, Medwin stated Byron was infuriated by seeing a copy of Southey to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776, which appeared in the Courier on 11 January 1822 (Medwin, Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron, pp. 221–224).[back]
8. Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).[back]
9. Westall produced six prints: ‘Druidical Stones near Keswick’; ‘Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite-water and Skiddaw, from Walla Crag’; ‘Derwentwater from Strandshagg’; ‘Crosthwaite Church and Skiddaw’; ‘Greta Hall, Derwentwater and Newlands’; and ‘Tarn of Blencathra’. Lightfoot had seen all but the last on his visit in 1822.[back]
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